Ukraine-Russia conflict: EU agrees to freeze Putin, Lavrov's European assets

European Union officials agreed to impose another round of sanctions against Russia over the attack on Ukraine, including freezing the European assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The 27-member voting bloc agreed unanimously to the broader sanctions package, suggesting that Western powers are taking unprecedented measures to try to force Putin to stop the invasion into its neighboring country and prevent a broader war from breaking out in Europe.

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Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said the move would be "a unique step in history toward a nuclear power, a country that has a permanent seat on the Security Council, but also shows … how united we are." It was unclear what the practical impact on the two men would be and how important their assets in the EU were.

Although the European officials held off from even harsher sanctions for now – such as banning Putin and Lavrov from traveling with EU boundaries – they indicated that such penalties are not fully off the table. Other sanctions are still possible, the officials said, including cutting Russia off from SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions.

"The debate about SWIFT is not off the table, it will continue," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

In a tweet, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said the EU foreign ministers adopted the sanctions package and "the asset freeze includes President of Russia and its Foreign Minister."

Russia has responded in kind, with the Kremlin on Friday threatening to to impose retaliatory sanctions on Western nations on the basis of reciprocity, including banning British flights to and over its territory in retaliation to a similar U.K. ban on Aeroflot flights.

President Biden also imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia as military strikes and battles unfolded across Ukraine, with Russian forces targeting airfields and military depots across the country. Dozens of Ukrainian soldiers and Russian troops were killed in the battle, as well as civilians. 

The penalties will target Russia's financial system by blocking assets of large Russian banks, imposing export blocks on the technology and sanctioning the nation's ultra-wealthy business oligarchs.

"Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences," Biden said when laying out the sanctions, which he said would "impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.

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Action wasn’t only limited to Western powers. Countries in Asia and the Pacific have joined the United States, the EU and others in the West in piling on punitive measures against Russian banks and leading companies. The nations have also set up export controls aimed at starving Russia’s industries and military of semiconductors and other high-tech products.

While most nations in Asia rallied to support Ukraine, China has continued to denounce sanctions against Russia and blamed the United States and its allies for provoking Moscow. Beijing, worried about U.S. power in Asia, has increasingly aligned its foreign policy with Russia to challenge the West.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.